Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci decide it's time to break up and make their own movies

For nearly a decade now, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci have enjoyed hanging out together, playing with spaceships and robots, talking about spies and Spider-Man comics, and then making those things into movies and TV shows that generate billions. But as with all geeky best friends and writer-producers of successful genre franchises, there comes a time to grow up and go your separate ways—like heading off to college, or in Kurtzman and Orci’s case, after you decide it’s time to direct your own movie, maybe even one with girls.

Variety reports that the team behind Transformers, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and Star Trek is splitting up so that each can focus on their own big-screen careers, with Kurtzman looking to direct the Spider-Man spinoff Venom and assume control of Universal’s many developing monster movie reboots, while Orci is lobbying to take over Star Trek 3 as his directorial debut. Still, they’ve pledged to keep working together on the TV side, where they remain executive producers on Sleepy Hollow and have several more pilots in development.

And hey, they’ll see each other over Christmas break, where things will be amiable and everything, but Kurtzman will suddenly have a new haircut and contact lenses and talk about his Spider-Man friends like he’s soooo cool now, and Orci will just know he’s changed.